Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL130100050
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,073,424.00
Summary
What counts? Prosecution and the criminal trial in Australian history. This project will investigate the successes, failures and limits of the criminal trial in Australia, from the colonial era to the post-war decades. By using the rich resource of Australian archives, this project will provide an enduring foundational knowledge of Australian criminal justice in its historical and international context.
The Mission to Civilise: Colonialism, Race and Criminal Codes. This project will consider the historical relationships between ideologies of race and law enforcement, and will chart their social formation and naturalisation. This will be set within the context of colonisation in Australia, where there existed tensions between the equally dominant ideologies of overt racism, and ideals of liberal universalism that justified the Rule of Law. Archival research will scrutinise the way in which the ....The Mission to Civilise: Colonialism, Race and Criminal Codes. This project will consider the historical relationships between ideologies of race and law enforcement, and will chart their social formation and naturalisation. This will be set within the context of colonisation in Australia, where there existed tensions between the equally dominant ideologies of overt racism, and ideals of liberal universalism that justified the Rule of Law. Archival research will scrutinise the way in which the superficially racially-neutral language of criminality was constituted by notions such as property and civil order which became racialised in historically and socially specific ways, revealing underlying consistencies between apparently incompatible ideologies of colonial practices.Read moreRead less
Sacred Rules, Secular Revelations: The Conceptions of Rights in Pre-Modern Europe. This project provides a deeper understanding of the origins of and background to contemporary debates on the role of religion in law, and vice-versa. This is particularly relevant at a time when law and human rights face questions about their moral and normative qualities. It will contribute to debates about the origins of the humanities in higher learning by reminding us that such studies had their origins in re ....Sacred Rules, Secular Revelations: The Conceptions of Rights in Pre-Modern Europe. This project provides a deeper understanding of the origins of and background to contemporary debates on the role of religion in law, and vice-versa. This is particularly relevant at a time when law and human rights face questions about their moral and normative qualities. It will contribute to debates about the origins of the humanities in higher learning by reminding us that such studies had their origins in resolving practical problems and conflicts, rather than esoteric ends. This project will further reinforce Australia's reputation for integrating sound scholarship with innovative methodology and inter-disciplinarity in pre-modern European studies. Read moreRead less
Defining and Attempting Reconciliation: A Critical Analysis of the Pursuit of Reconciliation in South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This project challenges existing accounts of South Africa's confrontation of its apartheid past, by establishing the conceptual significance of 'reconciliation' in its Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Using a perspective informed by the international context of transitional justice, and by comparison with other postcolonial racially-divided soci ....Defining and Attempting Reconciliation: A Critical Analysis of the Pursuit of Reconciliation in South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This project challenges existing accounts of South Africa's confrontation of its apartheid past, by establishing the conceptual significance of 'reconciliation' in its Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Using a perspective informed by the international context of transitional justice, and by comparison with other postcolonial racially-divided societies, it tests the hypothesis that restorative justice is more effective than retributive justice. Publication of the findings in a book and articles will illuminate the significance of 'reconciliation' for South Africa's recent political, legal and social history, and for its immediate future. In a larger thematic context, it also offers important applications for Australia.Read moreRead less
John Vincent Barry: law, social reform and institutional innovation in mid-twentieth century Australia. The capacity of governing institutions to adapt to changing social conditions was a critical component of Australian post-war history. As jurist, social reformer, sponsor and mentor of an emerging Australian criminology, criminal justice practitioner, intellectual and internationalist, John Barry was an exemplar of an activist in this cause. This study explores the dimensions of this activity ....John Vincent Barry: law, social reform and institutional innovation in mid-twentieth century Australia. The capacity of governing institutions to adapt to changing social conditions was a critical component of Australian post-war history. As jurist, social reformer, sponsor and mentor of an emerging Australian criminology, criminal justice practitioner, intellectual and internationalist, John Barry was an exemplar of an activist in this cause. This study explores the dimensions of this activity of institution-building and intellectual engagement through the record of Barry's life in its political and social context. Outcomes will include a published biography and articles dealing with the conditions of intellectual and political engagement in social reform in post-war Australia.Read moreRead less
The global opponents of universal human rights, 1946-2006. This project will identify and analyse the historical patterns of opposition to universal human rights that have emerged since the birth of the United Nations in 1945. In doing so, it seeks to enable the more effective pursuit of a major Australian foreign policy objective, the global promotion of human rights.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100801
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$382,248.00
Summary
Boys and sexual abuse: rethinking victim and offender categories. Histories of child sexual abuse often ignore boys. This project investigates the socio-legal processes that designate boys as sexual victims, sexual offenders and sexual agents; it explores how boys occupy multiple categories or slip between them. It uses legal and cultural evidence in Australia and the United Kingdom between 1870 and 1930 to rethink the formation of victim and offender categories. Comparing policy and practice ac ....Boys and sexual abuse: rethinking victim and offender categories. Histories of child sexual abuse often ignore boys. This project investigates the socio-legal processes that designate boys as sexual victims, sexual offenders and sexual agents; it explores how boys occupy multiple categories or slip between them. It uses legal and cultural evidence in Australia and the United Kingdom between 1870 and 1930 to rethink the formation of victim and offender categories. Comparing policy and practice across jurisdictions can reveal how frameworks of knowledge magnify and erase certain crimes and the people who perpetrate them. These findings will refine our understanding of what child sexual abuse is, who it affects and how we might adjust our modern forms of policing and intervention to deal with it. Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE150100051
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$410,000.00
Summary
The Australasian Legal History Libraries: Stage II. The Australasian legal history libraries stage II: Australia's leading legal historians will partner with the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) to create a massive expansion of free online access to Australasian legal history through digitisation and data aggregation. The Legal History Libraries on AustLII will become a comprehensive trans-Tasman collection from 1788-1999, including all reported case series and those from colon ....The Australasian Legal History Libraries: Stage II. The Australasian legal history libraries stage II: Australia's leading legal historians will partner with the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) to create a massive expansion of free online access to Australasian legal history through digitisation and data aggregation. The Legal History Libraries on AustLII will become a comprehensive trans-Tasman collection from 1788-1999, including all reported case series and those from colonial newspaper reports, and all Acts enacted, plus key collections of historical Bills, Gazettes, legal commentaries, and Parliamentary reports. The Libraries are expected to double in size from their current 50,000 items of cases and legislation. The Libraries will enable previously impractical access, comparative research, and international collaborations.Read moreRead less
A new history of law in eighteenth-century England. The century after 1689 witnessed momentous changes in English traditions of law and governance. This project will result in a new history of English law during the period, centred upon prestigious publications that will become standards and starting-points for future study by historians, lawyers, other scholars, and legal professionals.
Judging the past in a post-Cold War world. What are the consequences of the end of the Cold War? How do we make sense of the post-war world, apportion blame, redress wrongs and find a path to the future? This project will investigate the consequences of the most important international event since the end of the Second World War in four countries on the 'front-line' of the Cold War: Spain, Indonesia, Chile and France.